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There are tons of hacks out there that completely change up the Pokémon experience to make something new. But what if you just wanted something that attempts to improve upon the great game that is already there? Pokémon Throwback is my attempt at doing just that. This hack incorporates new features and fixes into the 1st Gen remake to try and create the best, most faithful version of the original Kanto story available.

Throwback contains a variety of patches that you can use at your own leisure: pick one or some things, or put all of them into the game! Fully read through the Extras section for a boatload of (minor) changes!

I plan to have full support for both FireRed and LeafGreen. It started as only a FireRed hack like so many other hacks here, but I feel that the latter game still needs some love. Look for the Venusaur icons to see what is currently working for LeafGreen.

GB PlayerHome of the first full-featured set of 8-bit tunes for GBA Pokémon hacks. No relation to the GameCube accessory.

Disclaimer: This video was from an earlier version of Throwback. The Level Up jingle is now in the game, among other things.

Offering both new and old versions of tracks for a game is never a bad thing, as both have their own charm. This patch introduces tunes that represent what Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow had to offer. They're based right off of the code from the original ROMs. Barring a few discrepancies, these tunes should be identical to their original iterations.

A completely separate sound bank with the recreated 8-bit soundtrack from Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow (and a little bit from Gold/Silver/Crystal). They play off of the GB Synth instruments of the Game Boy Advance instead of DirectSound (save for a few exceptions) to ensure minimal loss of sound quality. As they are based off of the original code, they are incredibly accurate recreations. Think GB Sounds from HeartGold/SoulSilver, but actually good.

A new key item, the GB Player, in your house in Pallet Town. With it you can choose which music you want to listen to throughout the game. The game saves which bank is chosen, so saving with the 8-bit tracks on will allow you to keep them on when booting the game up.

Stereo sound for all tracks. 1st-Gen tracks use similar panning to Yellow's "Earphone1" sound option, while 2nd-Gen tracks retain their original panning. For headphone listeners, it may actually be better to listen to the Gen 1 tracks in mono.

Things to consider for minor sound differences:

Spoiler:

Any quirk in an emulator's GB Synth implementation will cause some things to not sound quite right. gpSP, for instance, has faulty noise instrument sounds.

The volume of the tracks is rather loud. It is the same level as it was in the original games, in fact. Lowering it would ruin the fade outs of songs, making them reach zero volume (or velocity, both are impacted similarly) earlier than they should.

As far as I know, duty shifting can't be replicated in GB Synth. Songs using it have their sounds directly played back through DirectSound instead.

Note attacks/rises have been applied as best as possible. Some instances could not be implemented perfectly because of differences of handling note rises between the two hardware sets.

LFOs are implemented differently between actual GB hardware and GB Synth. LFO adjusts itself to changes in tempo in GB Synth, but not in standard GB hardware. This makes it impossible to implement properly for tracks with vastly alternating tempos (Silph Co., for instance).

The original Game Boy could play two noise samples at once, so long as one was a 256-sample noise and the other was a 32768-sample noise. I don't think it can be recreated in GB Synth, but I'm not certain. It's used in the Route 1 theme and Johto town music.

Note sweeping/bending for the evolution start jingle has been implemented through DirectSound.

Triangle waves need to be increased in octave by 1 to have the same sounds as they do on GB hardware. As such, they can't hit the same high notes as the original system. This is only noticeable with the infamous (hazardous?) Lavender Town triangle wave.

The Move Deleter track has not been altered for various reasons. If I can get pitch bending right, this may change, but the GBA track already sounds rather "beep-y and boop-y".

Catch 'em All*Circa 2000.

Stuffing 300+ Pokémon into a game the size of FR/LG can make things awfully crazy, and not necessarily in a good way. What I offer is an alternative that puts in all the Pokémon fitting for this game: the first two generations. They're all soundly located and dispersed throughout the game with no awkward confrontations in strange routes. I've added several new events for the one-off Pokémon such as starters and legendaries. Trade-evolved Pokémon still evolve through trade to keep with series canon, but can also be caught on one specific map in the game.
If you wish to get Celebi, please read below in the "Other Patches" section. Consult the included location/event guides for more information!

This means that there will be no Hoenn Pokémon in this hack. They really don't exist in the standard FR/LG game, and including them would make all areas too congested. If you want to play with Hoenn Pokémon, I suggest you play Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire. They're great games and do justice to the Gen 3 experiences that the original GBA games could not. If you need your Battle Frontier fix, there's always Emerald. As for for Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos Pokémon, you should experience their original games if you're interested. That's not to say that you should ignore Johto, though! Check out Crystal and/or HeartGold/SoulSilver if they interest you. Both the GBC game and the DS games offer different experiences from one another and should be enjoyed for what they are.

Using this patch, or playing with the complete hack, will yield you the above, version-agnostic (even though it requires a specific ROM) title screen. "But Richter, why call it just 'Pokémon'?" you may ask. Well, if you think about it, the name makes sense. What's the name of the original Final Fantasy? Final Fantasy, of course. As a remake of the original experience that took the world by storm, it holds the name strongly.

Images:

Spoiler:

WardrobeKeepin' it old school with super-stylin' threads. Like this one!

One of the presentation changes of FireRed and LeafGreen was new clothing styles for the main characters (the player and the rival). With this hack, I try to replicate the looks of their original looks to the greatest of my ability. All relevant sprites, including the overworld sprites, battle sprites, and opening and credits sprites, have been changed to do so. Now you can roll with the fresh versions of these dudes! Quit trippin' on today's junk and start chillin' in the old days to the max!

Images:

Spoiler:

And yes, the female protagonist has a hat on. It's to keep with the tradition that all playable characters in the main Pokémon games wear some sort of headwear.

ExtrasFor the hack-playing connoisseurs.

Did you ever wish that Game Freak made a few things more user-friendly or convenient in the games? Or do you just want to enjoy a few of the spoils brought about from later generations? This hack attempts to satisfy that craving of yours. With a varying array of fixes available, there's certainly something here to please you.

Portions of this patch description that are in red are only available for FireRed, not LeafGreen. This might be due to discrepancies in the code between FireRed and LeafGreen that extend beyond shifted data.

Collecting items from the ground or from certain people now plays the proper fanfare instead of the Level Up tune.

Cut down a tree once and it will be gone for the rest of the game.

TMs are infinitely reusable. Item behavior and a few TM locations have been changed to accommodate for this.

All move tutors will teach your Pokémon their moves an unlimited number of times.

You can use repels consecutivley as they run out, just like with the current games.

Poison on the overworld no longer causes your Pokémon to faint. Its behavior is similar to the 4th Gen games.

The Scope Lens, BrightPowder, Mental Herb, and Light Ball items are now obtainable.

All missing flutes (sans the redundant Blue Flute) are now obtainable.

All sensible missing Poké Ball and Mail types are now obtainable.

The areas in Mt. Moon have been more properly filled out.

All unneccesary tutorials have been removed. These include the intro screens, little girl, help sign in your room, Teachy TV, and Oak's advice during your fist battle.

You now turn to face trainers when they engage you in battle.

The Pokédex species glitch and roaming legendary IV glitch are now fixed.

The Gamer trainer type has been reverted to Gambler, with all accompanying text changed as well.

Giovanni's last Pokémon during the final Gym Leader Battle has been promoted back to a Rhydon.

The Elite Four and Pokémon Champion have had their 1st playthrough teams' levels increased by 2 to reflect their original Red/Green/Blue iterations.

The Pokémon League lobby music is now the Pokémon League theme.

Some transparency tile issues have been fixed.

Two charactes now hold their canonical U.S. names; Green and Charine are now Blue and Janine.

The Game Freak opening now displays the word "Presents" as it should. Also, the title screen lasts a little longer before looping back to the demo.

For practicality's sake, these are all part of one patch for now. Individual patches for each feature are currently in the works, as well as separate patches for different parts of the hack as a whole. I have no idea when I'll have them ready for a future release style.

Images:

Spoiler:

Other PatchesBecause goodness knows there's not enough patches in the download already!

Included in the download are a few other patches that can enhance your playing experience. These aren't part of Throwback itself and can be considered off-shoots. If time, reasoning, and demand prevail, I may also post these in the Resources section.

Celebi Giveaway: Outside of Japan, Celebi has never been obtainable in-game. You've always had to receive it through some real-world event, each of which would just give you the Pokémon rather than let you go through some now-accessible in-game event to get it. Noting this, along with the fact that Ilex Forest is not in FR/LG, I've decided to (currently) not have Celebi obtainable using the Catch 'em All patch. Instead, I've offered an alternative: a simulation of a real-world event that didn't happen but totally could have! Please read the included document pertaining to it before you use this patch.

Decapitalization: This patch does just what you'd expect: It decapitalizes all the text in the game to meet with official game standards. In other words, everything besides menu items and certain headers are no longer shouting at you! This patch used to be part of Throwback itself, but I decided that it had nothing to do with my hack strictly.

Higher Quality Cries: Have you ever felt that the quality of Pokémon cries in Generations 3-5 was lacking? Well, don't feel that way as much now! This patch will increase the clarity of the cries of all Kanto and Johto Pokémon over what was previously available. The cries were taken from clean recordings from a copy of Pokémon Crystal and downsampled to 16000Hz for insertion into the game. 16000Hz still isn't particularly great, so don't expect miracles with this patch, just minor changes. Since no higher-quality versions of Hoenn Pokémon cries are available to the public (to my knowledge, the DS and console games use the same audio files as the GBA games), their cries remain untouched. But that's kind of a good thing. This is a HUGE patch. Literally. The patch uses the entirety of the free space from 0xA00000 to 0xCFFFFF. I really had to do some massive sqeezing just to get them all to fit in that. Heck, astute listeners will note that the last part of Electabuzz's cry has been removed just for that reason! If Throwback didn't cause any conflicts with other hackers' patches you may be using in tandem with it, there's a good chance this will.

Known Issues

Spoiler:

GB Player

Upon beating the Pokémon Champion in the final battle, the victory theme will restart rather than continue playing past the battle screen.

Catch 'em All

The current implementation of the fixed Real Time Clock causes the lighting in maps to disable itself if the amount of minutes played changes while the overworld is visible. This is only noticeable in a few areas in the game, such as Viridian Forest.

Extras

PP is refilled when using TMs. This is due to TM usage not being changed to reflect them being reusable. There is currently no found way to apply this to the game.

Note that there is bound to be some tiny issue brought about by using some combination of patches. This is the unfortunate reality of combining patches for any game. The complete patch doesn't have any of those things, but will still have the specified bug(s) above.

Besides the above credits for their specific hacks, these are the more general thanks:

Jambo51: for all of the custom ASM code present. Seriously, thank you so much!

The .zip file should contain the complete hack, folders with the separate patches and other patches (the LeafGreen version has no folders), and various documentation for the hack. The main patch includes all Throwback patches combined into one, along with full decapitalization of all text in the game - original or hack-added. If you want to patch things individually, then go ahead. You can apply as many of them as you want!

It should run fine on actual hardware. The only issue you will have is with obtaining Umbreon. The GBA doesn't have an internal clock, so the game won't have a dynamic in-game time to which it can refer. Because of this, if Eevee evolves via happiness, it will always evolve into Espeon.

The Pokémon location guides are for the content from Catch 'em All. Refer to them if ever you have a question about where a Pokémon can be found in the wild or need help finishing the events. The main documentation includes locations for most of the things inserted into the hack. Only look at it if you're curious or are wanting to add your own things to the hack!

If anyone has any suggestions to refine FireRed and LeafGreen to the best they can be, feel free to notify me. Just keep in mind that keeping the hack compatible with the official games is an utmost priority. Also, anyone is free to use and modify these patches for their own projects so long as you give proper credit. I hope you all like my hack. Enjoy your time in Kanto!

The original post follows. Note that the described thumbnails in it aren't here anymore:

Spoiler:

Title: Pokémon FireRed - GB Sounds (Final?)

Story

A long time ago, I had a dream: to make the definitive, end-all-be-all version of the original Pokémon games. This game would include everything everyone loved about the GameBoy originals while catering towards the needs of the players. I would do this by using FireRed as a base. I had many plans with it: include new events, remove some inconveniences on the overworld, make all major competitive moves more accessible, etc...

This hack is the realization that I didn't have the know-how or determination to make that dream a reality. But now on to the real meat of what is here.

Sometime in to my "master hack," I decided to shift my focus on one area of the game that everyone was fond of in the 8-bit classic: the music. Sure, the new remastered/remixed tunes of FireRed/LeafGreen were highly enjoyable in their own right. But there was something missing in them that only the original tunes held: an elegant simplicity in both structure and instrumentation that could put a smile on anyone's face. I grew up with those GameBoy sounds, and I wanted to relive them in a (generally) superior version of that game.

The resulting hack you will see below is the final efforts of my music hacking. I poured plenty of time editing the music files to be used in Sappy, tweaking them to best simulate the tracks of the original games. I guess you could say that these tracks are the best I could do at the time. I couldn't get the wave instrument just right for many tracks...I don't know if it's even possible to do so. The noise instruments might also be a tiny bit off, especially in the Gold/Silver/Crystal tracks.

I haven't touched the game in a year, though. I just noticed the hack as I was digging through old files I was cleaning up and deleting. I figured that I might as well let the public try out this hack before I delete my old files!

If anyone wishes to better my attempts at making a better 8-bit option for FireRed, or can somehow port the original tracks into the game, then by all means go ahead. What I can assure you is that the old-school tracks in this game are of higher accuracy than the ones you'll hear when using the GB Sounds item in HeartGold/SoulSilver!

...Oh, you wanted the game's story. You're a ten-year old kid from Pallet Town who is sent off into the world of Japan Pokémon to capture certified battling creatures for sport. And battling! Be the best by becoming champion and...catching ém all? Insert motivational sentence here.

Features

This list isn't 100% inclusive, as I don't fully recall what I changed in the game. There might be some interesting extras in here that are a surprise even to me!

A completely separate sound bank with the recreated 8-bit soundtrack from Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow (and a little bit from Gold/Silver/Crystal). They play off of the GB Synth instruments of the GameBoy Advance.

A GameBoy Player prop has been added to your house in Pallet Town and every Pokémon Center in the game. With it you can choose which music you want to listen to throughout the game. The game saves which bank is chosen, so saving with the 8-bit tracks on will allow you to keep them on when booting the game up.

I changed a couple of the games main tracks for certain areas where I felt the music was redundant. I'm pretty sure this was just a lazy porting of some unused music in Ruby/Sapphire. If you guys want me to change it back, I'll do that.

The 8-bit ending track is a bit...different from what it was in the original games, in order to fit with FireRed's/LeafGreen's extended track.

Now for a few other things I did to the game...I think. Let me know if you catch something off!:

All version-exclusive Pokémon are included in the game.

Most Johto Pokémon can be obtained in the latter Sevii Islands.

I edited an event on Sevii Isle 4, which is merely a leftover of my more ambitious goal.

The little girl in Pallet Town no longer acts as a Start button tutorial.

Cut down a tree once and it will be gone for the rest of the game.

All move tutors, excluding the elemental beam tutor, will teach your Pokémon their moves an unlimited number of times.

Some trainers have been edited to reflect their original Red/Green/Blue iterations.

I implemented the Trainer Facing Fix for "correctness."

Images

It's kind of hard to show images for a music hack, since the changes are audible ones. Nevertheless, I have images showing the new GameBoy Player prop in use. They're in the thumbnails below. I'll reupload them once I'm not a "junior" member.

Credits and Tools Used

If I forgot to include someone here who I should have, yell at me and I'll add it to the list.

Jambo51 - for the Trainer Facing Fix and the music bank switching script. Seriously, thank you so much!

VGMusic and João *Johnnyz* Buaes - for providing the base MIDI tracks to be converted for this game (I edited the heck out of them).

HackMew - for XSE, A-Trainer, FSF, and the beginner ASM guide.

Helmeted Rodent and the Fire Emblem Community: for Sappy mod 15.

Gamer2020: for GBA Pokémon Game Editor.

DavidJCobb and NarutoActor: for providing crucial offsets for the alternate music bank.

I have some leftover code in here for other various things that are not used in this hack, such as prime-dialga's Day/Night/Seasons system, JPAN's hacked FireRed engine, and knizz's long grass FireRed Patch. I'm just covering my bases here, in case anyone is curious enough to dig into the hack's code.

I hope you all enjoy my hack. Happy listening!

__________________

Who says hacks have to radically changes things up from their base games?
Click Red to check out a "definitive" version of his adventure in Kanto!

Thanks! To be honest I'm actually amazed I was able to get the music to sound the way it does now. I wouldn't consider myself a master hacker by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm happy with what I've been able to do on this.

This is exactly what I was hoping someone would do with my Music Table swapping hack when I wrote it. I look forward to potentially seeing even more 8 bit tunes running on GBA.

I like all the nice little touches, like the 8 bit versions of FRLG specific music (stuff that wasn't in RBY, I mean). You didn't have to do that, but you did, and it's a nice little touch.

Small criticism - to me the Trainer Battle music sounds off. Not sure exactly what - it just doesn't sound right.

Also, I since worked out how to create a carryable item which is capable of switching the music too. I could forward that code to you if you wanted - it doesn't require JPAN's hack, it runs on code already in the game.

NOSTALGIA!!!!!!! :D:D:D

__________________

Hey guys, please check out my recreations of the gen 1 and 2 music on my custom engine at my SoundCloud! - Here!

I think I understand what you think is wrong. Is it the wave instrument? Yeah, it really pained me that I could never get it sounding quite right. It's even more noticeable in places like Lavender Town and Pokémon Tower.

I'll be ecstatic if anyone is able to make it sound just right. Who knows, maybe I'll give the wave another try, too!

Quote originally posted by Jambo51:

This is exactly what I was hoping someone would do with my Music Table swapping hack when I wrote it. I look forward to potentially seeing even more 8 bit tunes running on GBA.

I like all the nice little touches, like the 8 bit versions of FRLG specific music (stuff that wasn't in RBY, I mean). You didn't have to do that, but you did, and it's a nice little touch.

Small criticism - to me the Trainer Battle music sounds off. Not sure exactly what - it just doesn't sound right.

I wanted to make every possible sound to be heard in 8-bit, if only to allow players to be immersed in the atmosphere of it all. I went so far as to even give a small effort into making the RSE trainer battle music 8-bit, too! Just do a Link Battle for it. I'll be happy to take any criticisms of it and improve myself off of them. Same goes for the "adjusted" credits music.

As for certain sound effects, such as Level Up/Item Get (why they are the same in this game I will never know...they even had separate tunes in the original RGBY) and Game Corner jingles, they are currently unchanged in any way. Whenever I tried to change them in Sappy, they would become muted in the actual game (they sounded fine in the program). Any ideas on this?

And those off tunes...they're really starting to bug me now. You know what? I'm going to give this project another go! I'll see how much better I can make this hack with time! And I don't want to just stop at more musical enhancements.

Quote:

Also, I since worked out how to create a carryable item which is capable of switching the music too. I could forward that code to you if you wanted - it doesn't require JPAN's hack, it runs on code already in the game.

Ooh, really? That would be great! I tried making a custom item with JPAN's hacked engine late into my work, but I could never get it right. Every time I tried using it, the game froze. I'd love to be able to get this thing working.

Just out of curiosity, this code will work for making a Key Item, right?

And don't worry, people. I'll give you access to it right at the beginning of the game.

Quote:

NOSTALGIA!!!!!!! :D:D:D

Yep! That's exactly what I was going for. I'm a major gamer at heart, both classic and current, and I have a real passion for seeing old classics get remastered at excellently as possible. I've supported game companies who've done this (Nintendo with Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Square Enix with Chrono Trigger for the DS, etc.) and have even worked on another hack for a classic game with all intentions of making it as polished as possible.

Something as delicate as Pokémon needs to be approached with caution. Pokémon Red is one of my favorite games of all time, yet I couldn't help but feel that FireRed was a bit...out of place for me. It took until I got the GB Sounds item in SoulSilver years later that I realized what it was: those classic 8-bit tunes. Once I started doing my own work to put a few of them in, waves of nostalgia really did sink in. Seriously, my spine shivered from hearing them ingame the first time.

But now I don't want to stop there. If there's anything else I can change to bring in more charm of the original games while keeping the polished, non-overwhelming system of the 3rd-gen games, I'll be sure to try to do something about it. Improvements will also always be on my mind.

It's very humbling to know that I could please someone as accomplished at PokéCommunity as you, BTW.

Ooh, really? That would be great! I tried making a custom item with JPAN's hacked engine late into my work, but I could never get it right. Every time I tried using it, the game froze. I'd love to be able to get this thing working.

Just out of curiosity, this code will work for making a Key Item, right?

And don't worry, people. I'll give you access to it right at the beginning of the game.

Yes, of course it does! That's a major difference between his and mines. Mines works as a key item! However, I do have to admit, mines is based off his, so I can't take full credit. I just worked out how to run it without his engine.

Quote originally posted by RichterSnipes:

It's very humbling to know that I could please someone as accomplished at PokéCommunity as you, BTW.

Thanks for the code Jambo51! I've got it *mostly* working, but there's one little problem with it. If you got my PM (or didn't, for that matter), please try to shoot one back to me soon!

I hope I'll be able to get it fully working so you guys can enjoy the convenience of an item in the near future, which might be sooner than expected. I gotta fix a nasty bug (on my part) that affects everyone who chose Squirtle as their starter (it won't show up until the post-game). It's not me discriminating, I promise!

Quote originally posted by Mallowigi:

That's a great project you have here. Also, did you insert only soundtracks from the Pokemon games or from other games as well? That would be really awesome!

All the "new" tracks in my hack are from the older Pokémon games. I don't know how to directly port tracks of another system's format from other games to GBA games, or if that is even possible. I think there are a few things one could use to get tracks sounding mostly right (record the original, turn it into a MIDI format, create instruments in Sappy that play the right sounds for the track, insert the track, fine-tweak it and presto?). I don't know myself, but if I find out a more practical method I'll get right to trying it out.

Technically you could emulate any sound you want using the GBA's DirectSound tracks. The only problem with doing that would be that the sound of them would be really muddled thanks to the system's weak speaker. Plus there are only two DirectSound tracks available, limiting your options for overlapping sounds.

Are you talking about putting part of my currently-existing custom soundbank into another hack? Unless you plan on using tracks from it, it would be easier to just create a new custom soundbank. Many other, if not most other, existing hacks have different data where I have my tracks, so data would be overwritten and the game would be screwed up if you tried direct porting. Even if you were to change its location, you'd have to change the pointers to the table's the assembly code's new location, as well as change it and the song table if need be. DavidJCobb has a guide up for that that I used to implement this myself. It's really helpful for anyone wanting to add a new soundbank while retaining the original tracks.

DavidJCobb's guide isn't as "dreadful" as it seems. In fact, if you fully know how to use Sappy Mod 15 a few of the more arduous steps can be passed by! Make sure to also refer to Maginus's guide for general music hacking.

As for my soundbank, the table begin at 0x800000. The actual tracks appear at 0x808000. You'll also need the assembly code at 0x880000 - 0x880037. And it isn't strictly an 8-bit soundbank, just so you know!

I can't express how great this is, it's pretty amazing. I loved the feature in HGSS and I'm glad (yet rather surprised) to see it implemented (and I'm a little disappointed that I didn't notice it sooner)

Thanks for the code Jambo51! I've got it *mostly* working, but there's one little problem with it. If you got my PM (or didn't, for that matter), please try to shoot one back to me soon!

I hope I'll be able to get it fully working so you guys can enjoy the convenience of an item in the near future, which might be sooner than expected. I gotta fix a nasty bug (on my part) that affects everyone who chose Squirtle as their starter (it won't show up until the post-game). It's not me discriminating, I promise!

All the "new" tracks in my hack are from the older Pokémon games. I don't know how to directly port tracks of another system's format from other games to GBA games, or if that is even possible. I think there are a few things one could use to get tracks sounding mostly right (record the original, turn it into a MIDI format, create instruments in Sappy that play the right sounds for the track, insert the track, fine-tweak it and presto?). I don't know myself, but if I find out a more practical method I'll get right to trying it out.

It doesn't seem as if many developers acknowledged the actual strength of the GBA's audio tracks, resorting to most using that French horn that lurks in most of RSE's music, among other instruments. From what I've observed, it seems theoretically possible to just about perfectly insert any track from any old game system up to the Sega Genesis. I don't think the GBA can handle SNES music, considering the massive amount of GBA ports of those games the system saw that had nerfed music (Super Mario Advance titles, Donkey Kong Country titles, Final Fantasy titles, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Mega Man and Bass, Super Mario Kart tracks in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, etc.).

Are you talking about putting part of my currently-existing custom soundbank into another hack? Unless you plan on using tracks from it, it would be easier to just create a new custom soundbank. Many other, if not most other, existing hacks have different data where I have my tracks, so data would be overwritten and the game would be screwed up if you tried direct porting. Even if you were to change its location, you'd have to change the pointers to the table's new location. DavidJCobb has a guide up for that that I used to implement this myself. It's really helpful for anyone wanting to add a new soundbank while retaining the original tracks.

DavidJCobb's guide isn't as "dreadful" as it seems. In fact, if you fully know how to use Sappy Mod 15 a few of the more arduous steps can be passed by! Make sure to also refer to Maginus's guide for general music hacking.

As for my soundbank, the listings begin at 0x800000. The actual tracks appear at 0x808000. And it isn't strictly an 8-bit soundbank, just so you know!

I've applied the patch to a ROM with an edited songtable and music changes, it appears to run just fine.
If I were to insert a new song after the Teachy TV song, would that be affected by the GB Player?

I've applied the patch to a ROM with an edited songtable and music changes, it appears to run just fine.
If I were to insert a new song after the Teachy TV song, would that be affected by the GB Player?

If the main table's listings/tracks were only changed, not extended, and no data currently exists at 0x800000, then the patch should work properly. Of course, a few other things will also change as mentioned in the 1st post.

My custom table only goes as far as the original table, so it stops at the Teachy TV tune as well. You'd have to extend both the original table and my custom one to add in new tracks (on top of the ones already present) to the game. As long as both tables are the same length and there are tracks specified for both tables, the tunes will be affected by the GB Player as expected.

After some deliberation and input from others, I've decided to consider splitting this patch in two: one patch will be my complete hack, while the other will be just the inclusion of the music.

I should explain. It seems that there is enough interest in using the custom tracks for other hacks. I feel that it would be best to offer the 8-bit tracks as a separate package so others can use them without having to deal with the extra "clutter" that I have in my hack. You know, like the altered events and new tree behavior. If it will lead to interest in music hacking increasing or joy while playing, then I'll be willing to do it. I'll still work on my own hack with full intentions of crafting what I feel is the "definitive" Pokémon (Fire)Red. It was my original intention with this hack, and I now feel I have enough of a drive to advance in my attempts to make it more of a reality.

If I do make the bare-bones patch, I need to know what people's opinions on a few questions are. The question is a bit too open-ended to be used in a poll, so anyone who wants to share their opinion can do so:

1) Should I revert the changes I made on a couple of the primary FireRed tracks to what they were in the original game? Currently the GSC Legendary Trio tune plays when facing off against one of the legendary birds or [insert what you collectively call Raikou, Entei, and Suicune here]. Also, I added a second GSC route music for the latter Sevii Isles. Both GBA tracks are unused tunes from RSE and are of a bit noticeably lower quality.

2) Is there any interest in including any of the conveniences I have in the hack into the lite patch? Some of the subtle changes include once-and-done tree cutting, unlimited use of included Move Tutors, and the end of version exclusivity for Pokémon (they're not distributed randomly, but in the areas they'd appear in their respective games).

3) Is there any preferred location you'd like the retro soundbank to be in the hack? Are there any areas of the ROM that seem to always be empty in popular pre-existing mini-hacks of FireRed?

If the lite patch sees the light of day, it won't be until after the next release of the main one. I want to at least change the GB Player into a key item before I start on it.

After some deliberation and input from others, I've decided to consider splitting this patch in two: one patch will be my complete hack, while the other will be just the inclusion of the music.

I should explain. It seems that there is enough interest in using the custom tracks for other hacks. I feel that it would be best to offer the 8-bit tracks as a separate package so others can use them without having to deal with the extra "clutter" that I have in my hack. You know, like the altered events and new tree behavior. If it will lead to interest in music hacking increasing or joy while playing, then I'll be willing to do it. I'll still work on my own hack with full intentions of crafting what I feel is the "definitive" Pokémon (Fire)Red. It was my original intention with this hack, and I now feel I have enough of a drive to advance in my attempts to make it more of a reality.

If I do make the bare-bones patch, I need to know what people's opinions on a few questions are. The question is a bit too open-ended to be used in a poll, so anyone who wants to share their opinion can do so:

1) Should I revert the changes I made on a couple of the primary FireRed tracks to what they were in the original game? Currently the GSC Legendary Trio tune plays when facing off against one of the legendary birds or [insert what you collectively call Raikou, Entei, and Suicune here]. Also, I added a second GSC route music for the latter Sevii Isles. Both GBA tracks are unused tunes from RSE and are of a bit noticeably lower quality.

2) Is there any interest in including any of the conveniences I have in the hack into the lite patch? Some of the subtle changes include once-and-done tree cutting, unlimited use of included Move Tutors, and the end of version exclusivity for Pokémon (they're not distributed randomly, but in the areas they'd appear in their respective games).

3) Is there any preferred location you'd like the retro soundbank to be in the hack? Are there any areas of the ROM that seem to always be empty in popular pre-existing mini-hacks of FireRed?

If the lite patch sees the light of day, it won't be until after the next release of the main one. I want to at least change the GB Player into a key item before I start on it.

I would just add the custom 8-bit tracks, like you did with the original patch. In the second patch, could you do it so that the tracks revert to the standard tracks like in HGSS?
Will you be adding the GB Player as a key item in the second patch?

I would just add the custom 8-bit tracks, like you did with the original patch. In the second patch, could you do it so that the tracks revert to the standard tracks like in HGSS?
Will you be adding the GB Player as a key item in the second patch?

Well, this *IS* the original, as in only, patch. And I don't know why I even thought of throwing in other things into a "music-only" patch. If I make a separate one, I'll do just that, so ignore question 2 everyone.

When you say "revert," do you mean change back to the GBA tracks EVER, or revert to them after saving the game and turning it off/on? You know you can always turn off the GB Player if it is on.

The next patch will (hopefully) be out within a few days, and it will indeed add the GB Player as a key item. It's fully functional, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on with a particularly annoying bug that's related to it.

Hi, This is amazing work I'm currently working on a retro hack and this is perfect. I would love to see it seperate as a carriable item. I looked at the script. I think the command that triggers the switch is the writebyteoffset? I tried adding the writebyteoffset command to a level script as I want the music straight away, but it didn't work, any help? If you made an ips that swapped the banks so you had the 8-bit first you would be a real legend :D

__________________

ROM Hacking was getting frustrating for me. I've now stopped productions and writing the game from scratch in HTML 5.

That means it will be playable in the browser, and across multiple devices such as the iPod touch.

Hi, This is amazing work I'm currently working on a retro hack and this is perfect. I would love to see it seperate as a carriable item. I looked at the script. I think the command that triggers the switch is the writebyteoffset? I tried adding the writebyteoffset command to a level script as I want the music straight away, but it didn't work, any help? If you made an ips that swapped the banks so you had the 8-bit first you would be a real legend :D

Yes, the "writebytettooffset" command is what controls which soundbank is in use. If you want to use it elsewhere in the game, make sure you set or clear flag 0x8F0 before you do it. And the item will be coming very soon, I promise!

What exactly do you mean by "straight away?" As in, ASAP in-game, or right when you boot the game for the first time? If I was to do the latter, that would demote the GBA music to secondary status, which is not my intention here. I figured that the best way for everyone to enjoy the 8-bit music was to make it an option alongside the standard music, something that people can switch on and off conveniently. I could always do the latter by simply switching which soundbank is the "primary" one, but it isn't exactly what I want from the hack. An optional IPS patch that does that isn't unreasonable, but I'm not making any promises on that.

Do remember that the soundbank in use stays active even after saving and turning off the game, so you could keep the GB Player on for the entire game if you wanted!

And I don't deserve the title "legend" regardless of what anyone might think of this hack. If it wasn't for Jambo51's crucial ASM code I wouldn't have gotten the hack in the state it is in now. Unless you're talking about the music itself, of course, but even then that term is quite extreme .

I’m happy to release an update to this throwback patch today. Head back to the first post for your goodies!

Changelog:

The GB Player is now a key item! Grab it on your way out of your house in Pallet Town. It backpack image and base description are from HG/SS. Huge thanks to Jambo51 for the Item-Script-Redirect ASM codes.

To coincide with the new item, GB Player props have been removed from all Pokémon Centers in the game.

A script error on Four Island that occurred to anyone who chose Squirtle as their starter has been fixed.

Also: various code cleanup to remove unused modifications in the game.

This new patch comes with a warning. Just in case you don’t catch it in the first post, I’ll reiterate it here: DO NOT REGISTER THE GB PLAYER ITEM TO SELECT AND USE IT FROM THERE. Happy times will not be had by those who do so.

Some people may have noticed that the hack has been retitled to “Pokémon FireRed Throwback.” Since starting it up again, I have become more interested in making modifications to the game to make it more reminiscent of the original titles. The 8-bit music will still be the core focus (or, at worst, a core focus), but I’ve been thinking of branching out to changing other elements of the game.

In saying that, I have two images for you to look at. The one to the left is of the main characters as they appear in FR/LG. To the right is…well, you should get what it is.

Note that the sprites to the right were quick mock-ups that use the same palettes as their base images. If I went any further with this makeover I’d tidy them up a little bit. Also, keep in mind that this might or might not turn into anything.

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